The present invention relates generally to gift cards, and more particularly to holders for gift cards.
Gift cards are a type of gift certificate issued by a retailer or restaurant or the like. However, instead of a paper gift certificate, a gift card is issued in the form of a prepaid debit card. Gift cards are extremely popular gifts, as they relieve the giver of the burden of selecting a specific item of the right size or according to the particular tastes of the recipient. Yet a gift card is more personal than cash or a check, because the giver is able to select a store at which the giver knows the recipient enjoys shopping or a restaurant at which the recipient enjoys eating.
As noted above, gift cards are often issued in the form of a prepaid debit card, having a magnetic strip or bar code on the back. The cards are uniformly shaped and sized like credit cards, the dimensions of which are governed by an international standard. Occasionally, the retailer or restaurant that issues the gift card will provide a holder for the card, often in the form of a paper or cardboard backing that is glued to the card. However, the glue that is used is often hard to remove from the card. Alternatively, the retailer or restaurant may provide a holder that has four tabs or slots to retain the corners of the card. However, it can be difficult to secure the corners of the gift card under the tabs or into the slots in the holder. Further, these types of holders are not reliable, because the corners of the gift card can easily slip out.
Moreover, any type of gift card holder provided by a retailer or restaurant will typically have only the store's or restaurant's name and/or logo on it. Thus, the giver must still provide a separate greeting card for the recipient, for example, a birthday or Christmas card. Because the separately purchased greeting card is not adapted to hold or retain the gift card, the gift card can easily slide out of the greeting card when the recipient opens it. Alternatively, the giver can wrap the gift card itself, which can be difficult because of the small size of the gift card.